370 



THE GVIDU TO NATURE 



Meditation Couch. 



Warren, Ohio. 

 To the Editor : 



This picture suggests a resting place 

 in a forest of spruce trees, but there 

 are only two rows of trees, each row 

 fifteen hundred feet long and the trees 

 six feet apart. They were set out years 

 ago as a windbreak for a pear orchard. 

 Approaching to within a few feet of the 



the head, one in the middle, one at the 

 foot, and two pieces of burlay spread 

 over them, my couch is complete, and 

 you may look at its picture and be en- 

 vious. 



The mosquitoes have not troubled 

 me. If they do, I will put on my bee 

 veil and gloves. 



Yours very sincerely, 



W. W. Eathrop. 



MEDITATION COUCH. 



trees, on the left in the picture, is a 

 large field of tomatoes. On the right, 

 six or seven feet from the foot of the 

 couch, is a row of beehives of which 

 the writer is manager. On Sunday he 

 leaves the city and with his dinner in 

 a basket and such reading matter as 

 he likes he comes to this restful place 

 on the "Whiting Farm" a mile and a 

 half from Warren, Ohio. There he can 

 listen to the hum of the bees, the song 

 of the birds, and see the blue sky and 

 the tumultuous clouds through the tops 

 of the evergreen trees and read and 

 sleep to his heart's content. 



The couch was made in this way. 

 When in the spring I cut the grass 

 around the beehive, I allowed it to dry. 

 With it I stufifed three old burlap bags, 

 and put them in the little honey house 

 where I store my bee tools and extra 

 hives and everything that I want to 

 keep dry. 



On Sundays, when I go to see the 

 bees, and am ready for my recreation. 

 I take two hive covers and place them 

 against the tree to form the slanting 

 head of the cotich. With one bag at 



A Letter from the Tropics. 



La Ceiba, Honduras. 

 To the Editor : 



1 realize that 1 have parth' promised 

 to write something about the natural his- 

 tory of this summer land, but I have been 

 here for only a short time, and the sub- 

 ject is too extensive to warrant more than 

 a vignette — a bird's-eye view — in one 

 letter. 



There is a wealth of material here for 

 the naturalist, as well as for the mere 

 lover of nature who professes no scien- 

 tific attainments. The writer can claim 

 to be only an appreciative seeker after 

 knowledge, but he is keenly alive to the 

 "spell of the tropics." 



A scientific friend envies my opportu- 

 nity to roam among the interesting things 

 that I find here, and I envy the scientific 

 training that would enable me to profit 

 from this opportunity. Yet to the earnest 

 seeker after knowledge there is always 

 opportunity to pursue independent inves- 

 tigations which may possibly enlarge the 

 sum of human knowledge. It may be trite 

 to say, but it is eminently true that the 

 world is full of wonders. This is empha- 



